By definition, there can be predictability to end-of-possession offence. The shot clock is ticking down, and assuming that a team does not walk the ball up the floor and take its time, plans A, B and maybe C have usually failed by this point. The ball is generally just given to one of the best playmakers on the floor, and he tries to make something out of not a whole lot.

That has certainly been the case with the Raptors over the years. The team has been routinely criticized for isolation-heavy basketball, but so often the detested plays came at the end of the clock, with Kyle Lowry or DeMar DeRozan trying to get a shot off. Maybe the ball would go into Jonas Valanciunas in the post. Even this year, when the clock reaches single digits, Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam have gotten the ball and been told to go to work. Just because the Raptors succeed a lot in those minutes doesn’t make them pretty.